A device of this nature is known from EP-A-0,863,000. The rotary screen-printing device comprises a printing station which is arranged on an angle and has a removable stencil and a squeegee extending through the latter. During a printing process, the squeegee is supported at two end parts. The first end part is fixedly connected to a pivot point, and the second end part is supported on a moveable support member. The first end part is also fixedly connected to an actuable lifting cylinder. While a stencil is being changed, the moveable support member can be disengaged from the second end part of the squeegee. The squeegee is then held in place by the fixed connection of the first end part to the pivot point and the lifting cylinder. Then, the lifting cylinder can be actuated in such a manner that the squeegee rotates about its pivot point and moves into a position where it is at an angle with respect to the substrate-conveying means. The stencil also tilts upwards and can easily be pushed off the squeegee, which is clamped securely in place on one side.
A drawback of this known device is that the squeegee is fixedly connected to the device. The squeegee cannot easily be removed from the device. Consequently, the length and type of the squeegee are substantially fixed, which may be a drawback since, in practice, printing is carried out using various printing widths and/or types of squeegee. During a cleaning operation, the squeegee must, out of necessity, be washed on the device itself. A further drawback is that the squeegee cannot be tilted about its longitudinal axis. The fixed connection to the pivot point and the lifting cylinder makes this impossible. For example, in the case of a squeegee having a support strip and a roller squeegee, it is consequently impossible to adjust the gap width between the support strip and the roller squeegee. Since, in practice, roller squeegees of different diameters are frequently used for printing, this means that the gap width will vary accordingly.